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ORDINANCES FOR VIRGINIA.

II. ORDINANCES FOR VIRGINIA-JULY 24-AUGUST 3, 1621.

An Ordinance and Constitution of the Treasurer, Council, and Company in England, for a Council of State and General Assembly. Dated July 24, 1621.

To all People, to whom these Presents shall come, be seen, or heard, The Treasurer, Council, and Company of Adventurers and Planters for the City of London for the first Colony of Virginia, send Greeting. KNOW YE, that we, the said Treasurer, Council, and Company, taking into our careful Consideration the present State of the said Colony of Virginia, and intending, by the Divine Assistance, to settle such a Form of Government there, as may be to the greatest Benefit and Comfort of the People, and whereby all Injustice, Grievances, and Oppression may be prevented and kept off as much as possible from the said Colony, have thought fit to make our Entrance, by ordering and establishing such Supreme Councils, as may not only be assisting to the Governor for the time being, in the Administration of Justice, and the executing of other Duties to this office belonging, but also, by their vigilant care and Prudence, may provide, as well for a Remedy of all Inconveniences, growing from time to time, as also for advancing of Increase, Strength, Stability, and Prosperity of the said Colony:

II. WE therefore, the said Treasurer, Council, and Company, by Authority directed to us from his Majesty under the Great Seal, upon mature Deliberation, do hereby order and declare, that, from hence forward, there shall be Two SUPREME COUNCILS in Virginia, for the better Government of the said Colony aforesaid.

III. THE one of which Councils, to be called THE COUNCIL OF STATE (and whose Office shall chiefly be assisting, with their Care, Advice, and Circumspection, to the said Governor) shall be chosen, nominated, placed and displaced, from time to time, by Us, the said Treasurer, Council, and Company, and our Successors: Which Council of State shall consist, for the present, only of these Persons, as are here inserted, viz. Sir Francis Wyat, Governor of Virginia, Captain Francis West, Sir George Yeardley, Knight, Sir William Neuce, Knight Marshal of Virginia, Mr. George Sandys, Treasurer, Mr. George Thorpe, Deputy of the College, Captain Thomas Neuce, Deputy for the Company, Mr. Pawlet, Mr. Leech, Captain Nathaniel Powel, Mr. Christopher Davison, Secretary, Doctor Pots, Physician to the Company, Mr. Roger Smith, Mr. John Berkeley, Mr. John Rolfe, Mr. Ralph Hamer, Mr. John Pountis,

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Mr. Michael Lapworth, Mr. Harwood, Mr. Samuel Macock. Which said Counsellors and Council we earnestly pray and desire, and in his Majesty's Name strictly charge and command, that (all Factions, Partialities, and sinister Respect laid aside) they bend their Care and Endeavours to assist the said Governor; first and principally, in the Advancement of the Honour and Service of God, and the Enlargement of his Kingdom amongst the Heathen People; and next, in erecting of the said Colony in due obedience to his Majesty, and all lawful Authority from his Majesty's Directions; and lastly, in maintaining the said People in Justice and Christian Conversation amongst themselves, and in Strength and Ability to withstand their Enemies. And this Council, to be always, or for the most Part, residing about or near the Governor.

IV. THE other Council, more generally to be called by the Governor, once yearly, and no oftener, but for very extraordinary and important occasions, shall consist, for the present, of the said Council of State, and of two Burgesses out of every Town, Hundred, or other particular Plantation, to be respectively chosen by the Inhabitants: Which Council shall be called THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, wherein (as also in the said Council of State) all Matters shall be decided, determined, and ordered, by the greater Part of the Voices then present; reserving to the Governor always a Negative Voice. And this General Assembly shall have free Power to treat, consult, and conclude, as well of all emergent Occasions concerning the Publick Weal of the said Colony and every Part thereof, as also to make, ordain, and enact such general Laws and Orders, for the Behoof of the said Colony, and the good Government thereof, as shall, from time to time, appear necessary or requisite;

V. WHEREAS in all other Things, we require the said General Assembly, as also the said Council of State, to imitate and follow the Policy of the Form of Government, Laws, Customs, and Manner of Trial, and other Administration of Justice, used in the Realm of England, as near as may be, even as ourselves, by his Majesty's Letters Patent, are required.

VI. PROVIDED, that no Law or Ordinance, made in the said General Assembly, shall be or continue in Force or Validity, unless the same shall be solemnly ratified and confirmed, in a General Quarter Court of the said Company here in England and so ratified, be returned to them under

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The Dutch East India Company incorporated - Henry Hudson discovers and explores the Hudson River His conduct toward the natives - Returns to Holland - Perishes in Hudson's Bay - Argall's depredations — Monopoly granted by States-General - Explorations of Block, Christaensen and May - Forts erected at Manhattan and near Albany — Trading monopoly passes to Dutch West India Company — Its government - May becomes first director of New Netherland Walloons settle Wallabout- Peter Minuit succeeds May Manhattan Island and Staten Island purchased from Indians - Minuit's controversy with Bradford, governor of Plymouth - Dispute settled- - Charter of "Privileges and Exemptions "The plan of colonization Swaanendael, Pavonia, and Rensselaerwyck - Minuit recalled and Van Twiller appointed his Attempt of the Dutch to settle in Connecticut - Forced to withdraw Swansdale sold back to Van Twiller repels attempt of English to capture Fort Nassau - Van Twiller succeeded by Kieft - The Company of the South Seas organized by the Swedes — Minuit leads expedition to Delaware — Minuit's successors - Instructions to Printz - Activities of the Swedes. Appendix to Chapter IV: the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions.

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While the other European nations were sending out their explorers not only to America but also to find a more convenient passage to the East, the Dutch people had not been idle. Being a nation of hardy and experienced mariners and possessing a large and excellent merchant marine,* they were ambitious to discover an enviable route to the Indies and for some time had been attempting to find a northern route to the East.t

* Hume, in his History of England, vol. iv., p. 514, says that the Dutch "possessed three times more shipping than the English but their ships were of inferior burden to those of the latter." It is undoubtedly true that by the end of the 16th century the Dutch were the foremost power on the sea.

Sir George Birdwood and Forster in the introduction to The First Letter Book of the East

Regarding the journeys of Cornelius Houtman in 1595 around the Cape of Good Hope and of others to Java and the Moluccas in 1598 we need make no extensive comments.* But the establishment of these Oriental trade routes led to the organization and in

India Company, xliii, say that while the Dutch attempts to get to the East were later than those of the English, their long established indirect trade with India, through Lisbon, enabled them to get there before the English. Motley (United Netherlands, vol. iii., p. 513 et seq.) says that the Dutch already had some knowledge of the Fast as one of their countrymen, John Huygan van Linschoten, published a book in 1596 which gave an account of a voyage he had made to the East on a Portuguese vessel and which described his long residence in India.

* Details will be found in Morris, History of Colonization, vol. i., p. 309 et seq. and authorities cited.

DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

corporation of the Dutch East India Company, which subsequently had not a little to do with the exploration of America. Up to this time Spain and Portugal had practically exercised a monopoly of marine rights which they claimed under the theory that a nation was the absolute possessor of and might exercise exclusive control over a body of water or a tract of land which had been discovered by its subjects, but the Dutch, backed by the good will of the peoples of northern Europe, attacked this mistaken dogma and proceeded to defy the Spanish nation in its attempt to enforce its observance. Furthermore, the competition between trading companies was becoming ruinous; there was lack of system which resulted in sending too many vessels to one port and none to another; credit was weak and capital was timid; and the tendency among smaller merchants to practice fraud was becoming more marked.

Therefore it was deemed expedient to charter a company which would do away with all this, and accordingly on March 29, 1602, the Dutch East India Company was chartered, its capital stock, amounting to approximately $5,000,000, divided into 2,153 shares, nearly 57 per cent. of which was owned in Amsterdam and the remainder in Zealand, Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen.† The

* Motley, United Netherlands, vol. iv., p. 226. The preamble of the charter states that the "said companies [should] be united in a firm and certain union, and in such manner that all the

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government of the Company consisted of a council of 60 members with a supreme managing board of 17 directors named by the States-General.*

Under the auspices of this Company the Hudson River was discovered in 1609 by Henry Hudson, a famous navigator who had entered the service of the Company some time previously.† By birth he was an Englishman and had been an intimate friend of John Smith. In an attempt to discover a northwest passage to India, Hudson, in the employ of some London merchants, had already made two voyages, but as he received no encouragement in England he went to Holland, whence on April 4, 1609, in command of a small vessel of 80 tons' burden, named the Half-Moon, he embarked on a third voyage. Proceeding to America, he was impeded by the ice in the northern seas and therefore started southward. Sailing along

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*

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* See Raynal's History of the Commerce and Establishments of the Europeans in the Indies (Eng. tr.) vol. i., p. 311 et seq; Motley, United Netherlands, vol. iv., p. 125 et seq.; also Morris, History of Colonization, vol. i., p. 310 et seq.

Fiske says that there can be no doubt but that the Hudson River was visited by many Europeans before Hudson and cites many instances, noting especially the visit of Verrazzano - Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, vol. i., pp. 58-80.

Bancroft, vol. i., p. 481; Lamb, History of the City of New York, vol. i., pp. 26-27.

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the coast of Acadia, he entered Penobscot Bay, then touched at Cape Cod, entered Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and finally on September 2 entered Sandy Hook Bay. The sailors went ashore and found the land " pleasant with grass and flowers and as goodly trees as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them."* Passing through the narrows on the 11th, Hudson on the following day began his voyage up the river which now bears his name and found the country on each side as beautiful a land as one can tread upon.' Hudson ascended the river as far as the site of the present city of Albany, and from that town sent a small boat further up the river which probably explored somewhat beyond Waterford. There has been much dispute regarding Hudson's conduct toward the natives, some claiming, as Hildreth, that it was marked with "reckless cruelty," but the facts on record hardly seem to substantiate this statement. Hudson then having gained considerable knowledge of the upper portion of the river, descended to Sandy Hook Bay and on October 4 set sail for home.§ Arriving at

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Dartmouth, England, in a little more than a month, he and his ship were seized in England and the vessel detained there for about eight months, but at the end of that time the vessel was allowed to depart for Holland, though Hudson was detained by a royal order. Upon his release he set sail on his fourth voyage, but from this he never returned. Shortly after his arrival at Hudson's Bay in 1611, his crew mutinied, undoubtedly because of the extremely cold weather and the fact that provisions were running low, and Hudson, his young son and seven others were set adrift in an open boat, only to perish in the frozen regions of the bay which still bears his name and reminds us of his terrible fate.* Fiske says: "The

melancholy grandeur over the useless magnificence of nature, and hid in their deep shades the rich soil which the sun had never warmed. No axe had levelled the giant progeny of the crowded groves, in which the fantastic forms of withered limbs, that had been blasted and riven by lightning, contrasted strangely with the verdant freshness of a younger growth of branches. The wanton grape vine, seeming by its own power to have sprung from the earth and to have fastened its leafy coils on the top of the tallest forest tree, swung in the air with every breeze like the loosened shrouds of a ship. • Reptiles sported in stagnant pools, or crawled unharmed over piles of smouldering trees. The spotted deer crouched among the thickets; but not to hide, for there was no pursuer; and there were none but wild animals to crop the uncut herbage of the productive prairies."- Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. ii., pp. 266-268 (1st ed.). See also the description of the country, its inhabitants, etc.. taken from DeLate's New World, in Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, p. 36 et seq.; Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., p. 35

et seq.

*

*Thomas A. Janvier, Henry Hudson; Henry C. Murphy, Henry Hudson in Holland; John M.

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